Drawer and cabinet door locks, in contrast to main entry locks for doors, etc., have not been designed to facilitate rekeying of the lock. It has generally been accepted in the industry that the cost of replacing an entire drawer or cabinet door lock is less than the labor cost of disassembling and replacing lock pin tumblers to rekey the lock. Therefore, drawer and cabinet door locks are typically constructed with nonremovable cylinder and cylinder plug assemblies. In some instances, it may be possible for a locksmith to disassemble and rekey such a lock, but such an operation is not cost-effective and is extremely difficult to do. This type of rekeying effect is not cost-justified because removal of the cylinder and plug assembly requires disassembly of the entire lock resulting in a loss of syncronization of cam mechanisms, bolt springs and other internal bolt driving mechanisms. Reassembly and retiming of the lock are sufficiently complex operations to require the use of timing charts and specialized tools provided to the locksmith by the lock manufacturer.
U S. Pat. Nos. 3,589,152, to Glass and Orr, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,824,817, to Orr, both describe cabinet door locks which have removable cylinder and plug assemblies. This feature is provided primarily to permit finishing of the furniture in which the locks are installed. Prior to installation of the cylinder and plug assemblies, a bolt housing is installed in the furniture. The furniture is then shellacked or otherwise finished. The cylinder and plug assembly is then attached to the, bolt housing. This prevents shellac or other finishing materials from entering the pin tumblers of the cylinder and plug assemblies.
The above-described removable cylinder and plug assemblies are not well adapted for rekeying by locksmiths and others. Each of the above two designs requires that at least one specialized external tool be used to disengage the cylinder and plug assemblies from the bolt housings. Such an arrangement is not commercially suitable for locksmiths because of the requirement for a specialized tool. Furthermore, each of the above two described removable cylinder and plug assemblies utilizes a complex design which is expensive to manufacture. This places the manufacturer at a competitive disadvantage with respect to non-rekeyable drawer locks and cabinet door locks.
Therefore, a need exists for an inexpensive pin tumbler drawer and cabinet door lock which has a removable cylinder and plug assembly. Preferably, this design would be sufficiently inexpensive so as to be competitive with non-rekeyable drawer and cabinet door locks. Removal of the cylinder and plug assembly should not require specialized tools and should be able to be accomplished in one minute or less.